Matthew Perry’s Life Hasn’t Always Been Easy – And What He’s Had To Endure Is Utterly Heartbreaking

“If somebody says, ‘Hi Matthew, I love your work,’ that’s one thing. But if somebody goes ‘Yo, Chandler,’ I don’t like that. I’m tired of it,” said actor Matthew Perry in 2014. However, it’s not just typecasting that has hurt Perry during his career, but other things that go much deeper than that. His portrayal of Chandler Bing in Friends made him one of the most recognizable faces on our television screens during the ’90s and early ’00s. But behind the scenes his popularity with audiences did nothing to quell the pain that he was feeling inside. And that pain was brought on by a number of serious personal issues…

He may be best known today for his portrayal of Chandler Bing in Friends, but 48-year-old actor Matthew Perry was performing long before that iconic show started. Born in 1969 in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Perry gravitated towards two things early on in his life: tennis and acting.

But it was after his move to Los Angeles at age 15 that the ball really started rolling for the young Perry. As a student at high school he landed his first movie role in the 1988 coming-of-age flick A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon.